The sight of two unwaveringly optimistic young girls staunchly waving their “Foxes never quit” flags proudly in the air – despite the swirling rain at the King Power Stadium – summed up the never-say-die attitude required for a relegation battle that Leicester are going to need now more than ever, after their chances of staying up decreased significantly with Sunday’s defeat.
Even before losing against Brighton, Leicester’s hopes had suffered a big blow with the sight of Oona Siren hitting a superb, looping volley into the net to earn 11th-placed West Ham a valuable point in a lunchtime kick-off. The 1-1 draw at home against London City Lionesses edged West Ham further away from the bottom side Leicester, who would go on to be deservedly beaten 1-0 by Brighton and find themselves four points adrift with four games remaining.
There is, at least, a potential lifeline this season: the one-legged playoff fixture, scheduled for 23 May, against whoever finishes third in the second tier is now beginning to loom large for Leicester. The only side in the Women’s Super League affiliated to an EFL club, Leicester’s current predicament can largely be attributed to them operating on what is believed to be the lowest budget in the top tier, and to having lost important players such as Ruby Mace and the Japan duo Saori Takarada and Yuka Momiki in the summer. Pre-season concluded with Amandine Miquel leaving her role as manager 11 days before the opening matches. But they are now on a seven-match losing streak in the league and that has coincided with a significant upturn in results for Liverpool, who now look all but safe, after their impressive January transfer activity.
The latest of those seven straight WSL losses came on a soggy afternoon when Brighton showed their class on the ball, especially in the first hour, with Fran Kirby’s movement and creativity causing plenty of problems. After the hosts resisted their first-half pressure, Kiko Seike broke the deadlock by tucking home Rosa Kafaji’s unselfish pass, after Kirby had expertly threaded open the backline with a sublime through ball. The travelling fans, including someone wearing a seagull outfit, celebrated as their team flew up to sixth in the table. A satisfied Brighton head coach, Dario Vidocic, said: “I was very happy with the first half [and then] we managed the game out well and it was a very deserved three points.”
There were a few moments to perhaps give Leicester’s fans some cause for hope, not least a heroic block from Julie Thibaud, whose last-ditch defending helped keep Leicester in the contest, but the standout statistic of the game was that the home side did not have any shots on target. They are really lacking in quality in the final third.
“You can see the players are in the trenches together, there’s never a lack of effort,” the Leicester manager, Rick Passmoor, said. “We know that we’ve got a run-in where we’ve got to produce and stay together.”
It will be nearly a month until Leicester play again, on 26 April, owing to the extra length of the international window, which follows next weekend’s Women’s FA Cup quarter-finals. When they eventually return to action, Leicester’s remaining fixtures are away to London City Lionesses and Arsenal, before a home fixture against Chelsea on the penultimate weekend. They conclude their regular season with a trip to Everton.
If Passmoor’s team do end up contesting the dreaded playoff, the identity of their opponents from the second tier still remains very hard to predict. Pivotal wins for Crystal Palace and Birmingham on Sunday kept the automatic promotion race on a knife-edge, with the leaders, Charlton, missing the chance to clinch a top-two spot. Newcastle and Bristol City are still in contention but their hopes are fading. The top two will be promoted automatically while the third-placed team will play at home to whoever finishes bottom of the WSL and that looks increasingly likely to be Leicester.
It comes at an uncertain and worrying time for the football club more widely, with Leicester’s men’s team in the Championship relegation zone, a point from safety after being deducted six points for overspending. It could yet be a campaign to forget for the men’s and women’s sides.
